Texas AFL-CIO, Seeing Labor at Crossroads, To Hold Convention in San Antonio

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'Our Movement. Our Time.'

With organized labor at a demographic and political crossroads in Texas, national, state and local union leaders, many of them emerging activists, will work up ways to build power for Texas working families as the Texas AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention meets in San Antonio for the first time in decades.

The convention will take place Thursday, July 25 through Saturday, July 27, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 123 Losoya St., in downtown San Antonio.

"Labor unions in Texas have embarked on new terrain in our state," Texas AFL-CIO President Rick Levy said. "Beyond defending our right to exist, beyond the long-standing issues of wages, benefits and working conditions, we have committed to an ambitious Fair Shot Agenda that takes in all working families. We have invested more time on the topics of immigration, the role of criminal justice in workers' lives, changing technology, and changing work rules that hold challenges for all workers. Our constitutional convention focuses not on politics - we will get to that in January at our COPE Convention - but on what it means to work now and what we can do to build a better Texas for working families in the years to come."

Keynote speakers include: National AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler; Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union; Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA; and Ken Rigmaiden, President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.

Panels will cover diversity in the labor movement, organizing for growth, and combatting the White House assault on rights of federal employees. Workshops will feature the Texas AFL-CIO Citizenship Campaign (helping eligible workers navigate naturalization), apprenticeship programs, digital mobilization, leadership opportunities for young workers, the Census, NAFTA II, pensions, the challenges of AI, healthcare and a brief glance toward the political cycle.

Regular business of the convention includes election of officers, consideration of resolutions and other business items that guide the Texas AFL-CIO for the next two years.

Levy said the state federation is excited to hold this meeting in the Alamo City.

"The Texas AFL-CIO is proud to hold this convention in the great historic City of San Antonio at the Hyatt Regency, an outstanding unionized hotel that is setting a high standard for fair treatment of employees," Levy said.

"Our choice of location is no coincidence. Members of UNITE HERE who spoke up together for better working conditions and achieved a contract at the Hyatt will be discussing how their efforts succeeded and can grow in scale. We also look forward to engaging with them in their work capacities during every event at the convention."